Athletic maneuvers can create extreme forces in the various joints of the human body, including, but not limited to, the ankle, knee, elbow, or wrist. For example, the rapid lateral movements made by basketball or tennis players often results in extreme forces being transmitted throughout a player's shoe, foot, and ankle. Depending on the direction of the movement, these forces may result in excessive ankle inversion, wherein the sole of the shoe rolls inward toward the medial plane, or excessive ankle eversion, wherein the sole of the shoe rolls outward toward a lateral plane.
The joints of the human body and their surrounding anatomy are also subjected to extreme forces in contact sports. For example, a football player's wrists and knees may be exposed to extreme forces when blocking or being tackled by an opponent. Depending on the nature of the impact, these forces could result in painful hyperextensions, hyperflexions, or a variety of other joint injuries.
Regardless of the sport being played or the particular cause of the injury, temporary undesirable displacement of the body's joints can cause traumatic damage to them. The risk of such undesirable displacement and the resulting injury can be greatly reduced by partially restricting the motion of the joint and its surrounding anatomy, and shielding them from external impact. Known methods for attempting to reduce the aforementioned risk include taping or wrapping the joint or positioning a highly rigid support device about the joint.
Taping or wrapping the joint of an athlete in elastic bands can be a time-consuming and relatively expensive procedure, which generally can not be performed by the athlete. The taping or wrapping typically needs to be done by an athletic trainer or other person with specialized knowledge to properly and effectively secure the joint. In some cases, simple tapes and bands may not be truly effective at controlling motion, and may often serve as little more than a psychological crutch for athletes. Moreover, these devices do little to shield the joint surface from external impacts and tapes tend to weaken after only a few minutes of use.
When more rigid support devices are used, stiff support members are typically coupled with flexible sleeves and/or simple straps. Such devices, while potentially offering somewhat improved stability over tapes or bands, are often uncomfortable and add too much extra weight. Moreover, such devices often restrict the natural range of motion of the joint in certain directions to an extent that athletic performance is compromised or impeded. Furthermore, the geometry and placement of the rigid members of these devices often tend to exacerbate, rather than mitigate, the effects of external impact forces imparted to the joint or surrounding anatomy.
The joint support devices described so far aim to provide only mechanical immobilization of a joint and its surrounding body structures. More advanced joint support devices may incorporate means to stimulate the body itself to contribute to the joint supporting effort. Some joint support devices have incorporated elements intended to stimulate the body's proprioceptive response, which is activated via receptors located in muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joint capsule areas.
Proprioceptive receptors are capable of initiating appropriate tension in their associated muscles after sensing relative motion between, or other tactile sensations on, portions of the skin in the vicinity of these receptors. In order to increase the sensitivity for activating these receptors while wearing a joint support device, elements having a relatively high coefficient of friction relative to the skin can be placed on an interior surface of the support device in contact with the skin. Because of these highly frictional elements, perturbations of the surrounding support device due to joint movements are more likely to be transmitted directly to the surface of the skin around the joint to be supported. The precise location of these highly frictional elements determines which receptors will be activated (and, thus, which muscles will be tensed). Thus, the proprioceptive response could be used to initiate quicker muscular reactions that will aid in resisting—or at least slowing the rate of—undesirable joint displacement.
Known methods of incorporating proprioceptive members into joint support devices have many shortcomings. Often, the proprioceptive members are paired with other structural elements that make the support device too cumbersome to wear while participating in a competitive sport. In addition, the main body of the joint support device housing the proprioceptive members may not be capable of protecting the wearer from further injury. Furthermore, many proprioceptive members are not placed in anatomical locations that will maximize the body's ability to resist the unwanted motion.
Accordingly, a need exists for joint support devices that are capable of overcoming one or more of the limitations described above.